Go into a specialty area right after nursing school?

[amandaslagel]

If you know that you eventually want to work in the NICU or another specialty area, do you think you should apply for that specialty area right out of nursing school? Or do you think you should gain experience working as a floor nurse first?

[cracklingkraken, ASN, RN]

If you get a NICU job as a new grad, great! It tends to be the popular specialty, so you might not be able to readily find a position. But I would not put all of my eggs in one basket, so I would broaden my search beyond just the NICU. You have to go where the jobs are.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

I went right into OB after graduating. I was a CPM and went back to nursing school specifically to be a CNM, so that made sense for me. I still work per diem as an RN in LDRP, and when I float to med/surg and the ED (doing CNA type stuff) I am acutely aware that I never had the opportunity to learn some basic nursing skills. So there are pros and cons, I guess.

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

I went straight to the OR when I graduated.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

If you don't apply for your dream job, then you are guaranteed not to get it. Be prepared for many rejections, but you never know, you might get hired. I was hired into NICU as a new grad. If you are willing to relocate wherever the job is, then apply to every job posting (that you qualify for) in your desired specialty. The more applications, the better the odds. I would suggest applying to several different specialties that interest you. If you limit your applications to one specialty, especially a high sought after specialty like NICU, you may be unemployed a long time. Try applying to New Grad Residencies by searching indeed.com (type: New Grad RN Residency). That is your best opportunity to get into a specialty.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Definitely apply for your dream job first. I feel like people who start off in a specialty might honestly do better because they don't come into the job with any bad habits from working a different area just because they felt like they should.

[llg, PhD, RN]

They're all specialties now ... Even general med/surg is a specialty.

[SmilingBluEyes]

As said, ALL nursing areas are "specialties" including med-surg (which requires an amazing knowledge base and skill set). If you mean should you go into NICU, OB or other such areas, well that depends on you. A solid foundation in med-surg won't hurt but many of us started elsewhere and did fine.

[nurseynurse118]

I'm going straight into surgical nursing straight from school (pre-op and PACU). I feel very fortunate and would never give up that opportunity because I'm "supposed" to do med-surg first.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

I posed this question to my Med-Surg instructor when I was in school (Med/Surg first or direct to NICU). His advice was to go straight to the area that you want to be in (if possible). Following Benner's Nursing Theory of Novice-Expert, starting out in Adult Med-surg and working in that area for a couple years, you move towards "Competent" only to back step to "Advance Beginner" or "Novice" when you start the NICU job. You will reach "Expert" level sooner by going directly into NICU. Obviously, Adult Med/Surg skills correlates better when switching to Adult ICU rather than PICU/NICU, so the back step would be less significant.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

It depends. Is the hospital going to invest in training you to be a specialty nurse? If so then absolutely, go for it!